Psychic Warrior... Easy to make super powerful?

[Rystil Arden]

Want to go really crazy with a Psychic Warrior? Then take the Improved Natural Attack [claw] feat to increase that claw damage from 2d6 each to 3d6 each. Did that already? OK, take the Warshaper PrC to get it up to 4d6 base each. Now use Expansion to grow 2 sizes, giving 8d6 base damage each (this goes up to 16d6 if you manifest Claws of the Beast with at least 15 PP). Now be an Elan, which is an Aberration, and take Rapidstrike and Improved Rapidstrike. When under some sort of Haste effect, you can make 6 attacks for 16d6 base damage each, plus any strength and other factors. Now manifest Claws of the Vampire. Suddenly, you gain back 8d6 HP from each successful attack. Now you're playing with overpowered power.

Note: This combo was probably never meant to see the light of day and requires a feat from Draconomicon that probably shoudl only be for monsters, but says that any aberration (hence Elan) can take it.

 

[Zadam]

WOW!! I don't know what to say! Hehe that makes my crappy build look like nothing in comparison That is one seriously powerful character...

 

[Brother MacLaren]

Bah, I don't like running numbers, but here's a starter.

A 5th level Druid can Wildshape into an Ape, giving:

No, Ape is Large. Druid has to be 8th level (at which point Dire Ape is even more fun).
Good 5th-level druid combat forms include Black Bear, Dire Badger, and Leopard. Nothing with reach, although all have 3 attacks per round.
Combine Nature's Favor, Greater Magic Fang, and Bull's Strength at 5th level and you have (as black bear) claws at +11/1d4+8, bite at +6/1d6+5. (BAB +3, Str +6, GMF +1, NF +1)

 

[Zadam]

No, Ape is Large. Druid has to be 8th level (at which point Dire Ape is even more fun).
Good 5th-level druid combat forms include Black Bear, Dire Badger, and Leopard. Nothing with reach, although all have 3 attacks per round.
Combine Nature's Favor, Greater Magic Fang, and Bull's Strength at 5th level and you have (as black bear) claws at +11/1d4+8, bite at +6/1d6+5. (BAB +3, Str +6, GMF +1, NF +1)

Although that is pretty impressive, its still no where near the Psychic Warrior I proposed above...

 

[Coredump]

Yeah, the initial build is pretty good, but it is a one shot deal. And how does the buffing work? how many of your five rounds of attacks are wasted on additional buffing?

And how often do you have a bunch of rounds, to prepare for a 5 round fight?

 

[Jdvn1]

I think the extra attacks make the difference.

 

[Zadam]

Yeah, the initial build is pretty good, but it is a one shot deal. And how does the buffing work? how many of your five rounds of attacks are wasted on additional buffing?

And how often do you have a bunch of rounds, to prepare for a 5 round fight?

Yep agreed, you would of course have to prepare for 5 rounds, which is half a minute. And yes its a one shot thing. However, I'm thinking of this from a villain point of view, one who might have knowledge of the party's arrival and so can prepare just before they come charging into his dwelling. I woudn't consider this as a PC at all personally, I prefer more rounded and deep characters (and ones who will be useful for the entire day, not just for one combat )

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Yep agreed, you would of course have to prepare for 5 rounds, which is half a minute. And yes its a one shot thing. However, I'm thinking of this from a villain point of view, one who might have knowledge of the party's arrival and so can prepare just before they come charging into his dwelling. I woudn't consider this as a PC at all personally, I prefer more rounded and deep characters (and ones who will be useful for the entire day, not just for one combat )

If the batter is swinging for the fence, savvy players will throw a changeup.

The other side of the coin is that a lot of players only know how to throw fastballs. If the DM wants to get some fun out of the players' misery, this is how to earn it fair and square (provided you do not metagame, of course).

 

[RigaMortus]

For a 5th level PsyWar, working with your build, I would do the following:

Feats
Psionic Weapon
Psionic Fist
Psionic Meditation
Psicrystal Affinity
Psicrystal Containment
Deep Impact

Powers
Claws of the Beast
Expansion

And replace either Animal Affinity or Painful Strike with the Hustle power.

On your turn, you can (assume you already had Claws and Expansion up):
Manifest Hustle (this is a swift action to perform, and gives you an additional move action).
Use your Psicrystal's Psionic Focus to power Psionic Weapon.
Use your Psionic Focus to power Psionic Fist.
Use your exta Move Action (from Hustle power) to get your Psionic Focus back (thanks to Psionic Meditation feat), and use it to power Deep Impact.

You still have a Full-round action (or Standard and Move Action) to do things with. You can Charge your opponent and attack. You can power up any other powers you may have.

But this will give you a damage of:
+2d6 from Psionic Fist
+2d6 from Psionic Weapon
+1d6 from Claws of the Beast (assuming you have Expansion up)
Plus Strength damage

I could have done better, but I was just building off of your idea there Zadam.

 

[Zadam]

Very nice! I didn't of combining Hustle with Psionic Meditation like that! Awesome!

But I didn't think Psionic Weapon could be used on unarmed/natural weapons? (Ie I figured thats what Psionic Fist was for)?